Camera



CL 7, 1941. R, Q NELTNER i 2,258,098

CAMERA Filed April 23, 1941 Patented Oct. 7, 1 941 l `UNITED lsTTiezs PATENT oFFicE CAMERA /Baymond C. Neltner, Newport, Ky.

Application April 23, 1941, Serial No. 389,983

4 Claims.

ferre'd embodiment of the invention; reference being had to the annexed drawing in which:

Figure 1 is an uprightv cross-sectional view through one side of a camera:

Figure 2 is a detail view of the screen;

Figure 3 is a detail disassembled view of the film-feeding mechanism;

Figure 4 is a detail view of the knife for cutting off an exposed section of the illm strip; and

Figure 5 is a Vdetail view of a pair of spacer clips.

produced, as Well as the so-called direct-posifor exposing areas of different size upon the film strip to the iield of the lens, means for feeding the nlm strip into and out of the field of the lens, and stops adapted to cooperate with the screenadjusting means and the film-feeding means for correlating the distance of feed of the lm to the lengthof film exposed. In the preferred form of my invention these stops are so constructed and arranged as to be interchangeably associated with the screen-adjusting means and the film-feeding means in a manner such as to require only a simple manual operation on the part of the operator entirely mechanical in character when changing over from one size of picture to another.

Another object'of my invention is to' provide in a. camera of the above character screen-adjusting means extending to a position exterlorly of the camera so as to avoid the necessity` of admitting llaht to the film housing when changing the adjustment. of the screen. ,j

Still another object of my invention is to provide in a camera. of the above character, means for unwinding the film froma roll in a manner the initial developing soiution is discharged against thei strip, which tends to cling to the the emulsion-coated face of the strip and flush the strip into the lower end of the tank.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent '50 upper end of the tank, so as to eectlvelyrinse vfrom the following detailed description of a pre- 56 Referring to the camera illustrated in Fig. 1, a light-tight housing I contains a film magazine 2, adapted to be loaded into the housing through one side thereof which is suitably hinged for this purpose. 'I'he roll of film F within the magazine is supported upon a rotatable shaft 3, and an end of the film extends out through a slot circumferentially provided in the magazine. This nlm is directed upwardly over a lip 5 leading o from an edge of the slot.

The nlm strip passes over the lower end of a trackway l arching upwardly in a directiontoward the top of the housing. This trackway extends horizontally for a portion of its length "and then curves downwardly in a vertical direction adjacent the forward end of the hous- Eling, as shown in the drawing; The film is adapted. to be fed along the trackway by means of a push- `rod 8 passing through an opening in the rear the trackway. Upon the end of this feed plate opposite to itsI down-turned end is pivotally mounted on a pin Il presser foot I5 adapted to swing toward and from the film strip supported on the trackway. A tension spring i6 has its ends connected to the downturned endd Ila of the feed plate and to the presser foot Il, so as to yield. ingly maintain the latter in gripping. engage- 1 ment with the film strip. A soft rubber shoe lia is mounted upon the lower film-engaging edge of the presser foot, the arrangement being such `thai; when the push-rod is pressed forwardly (i. e., inwardly) the presser foot rocks the shoe into clamping engagement with the film strip, and

'advances the latter along the trackway.

Slidably mounted in the vertical wall o! an extended section Ia of thehousing is a cylindrical lens holder Il containing a lens (not shown) which, when the shutter contained in lens box I! is operated, momentarily uncovers the lens to expose the iilm in a manner well-known in the photographic art. 'Ihe field ot the lens is indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1. A rectangularshaped screen I9, colored black,is fastened to the lower end of a rod 2l extending upwardly through the housing, and provided on its upper end with a button 2|. 4This rod is adjustable npwardly and downwardly so that the'screen may Y front wall ot the lens compartment la. A coil be positioned clear of the neld of the lens to produce a full size picture, or so as to intercept a portion of this ileld for the production of pictures of reduced sizes.

For positioning the screen a plurality oi cylindrical stops 22 and 22a are provided, these stops being longitudinally split and adapted to be laterally sprung over the rod so as to encircle the rod between the button 2| and the top of the housing and hold the rod in elevated position. The push-rod 8 is of substantially the same diameter as the screen-adjusting rod 2l, and consequently these stops may be alternatively assembled with the push-rod in the same manner so as to lie between the button I2 and the rear wall of the housing to limit the' inward movement of the push-rod.

To conserve film, the size of the picture exposed to the iield of the lens should approximately equal the length o1 the iilm strip advanced along the trackway past the field of the lens on each operation of the push-rod; that is. the -feed of the lm should be regulated to correspond to the size of the pictures to be taken. To accomplish this, the iilm feed and screen adjustment are correlated in the following manner:

When both stops 22 and 22a vare assembled on the screen-adjusting rod, the screen is vsupported with its lower edge at A just out of intercepting g position with reference to the iield of the lens, and the distance of feed ofthe iilm by the pushrod under push conditions corresponds to the maximum exposure of nlm. When one of the stops is removed from the rod 2l and assembled -on the push-rod I, as indicated in dotted lines,

the screen I! is lowered to the position designated B to reduce the size ot the nlm exposure by one-quarter of its former length,V while at the same time the interchanged stop limits 4the distance of feed oi the illm bya like amount. To further reduce the size of the picture, the other stop 22a may be switched from the screen-adjusting rod to the push-rod, which permits the screen to be lowered to its maximum extent,

' causing approximately one-halt the original picture length of the film to be exposed; while the stop 22a in conjunction with the stop 22 already assembled on the push-rod, limits the feed of the iilm strip to one-half its normal distance, or to a distance corresponding to the size of the exposure determined by thenew positionof the screen. v

Of course, the stops need not be coniined to two in number, nor need they 'be ot equal length. By increasing the number ot stops and making them of comparatively short length, a wide variety of picture sizes is possible. Also, it will be apparent that by simply interchanging the stopstrom one rod to the other. any likelihood of mistake in altering theieed to correspond with the new setting ot the screen is avoided.

.Immediawy be1ow the seid or the 1cm arranged cross-wise of the trackway is a pivoted knife 23 operable by a plunger 24 connected at one end to the free end of the knife, and having its otherend projecting exteriorly through the spring 24a encircling the plunger and lying between the housing and a button 25 on the outer end oi' the plunger maintains the knife normally in open position so that an-exposed section of 'a illm strip may be ted downwardly beneath the By depressing the plunger, the

`in line with the end of trackway 1.

Detachably connected to the bottom of the housing in line withI slot 26 is a developing tank 21. This tank is of a width somewhat exceeding the width ot the illm strip, and is comparatively narrow in transverse thickness, tapering inwardly from its top toward its bottom. The upper end of the tank is provided with outturned flanges 2l which engage slideways 29, the arrangement being such that the vtank may be slid laterally into and out of engagement with the slideways to attach the tank to and disconnect it from the housing. An inlet tubeV l0 leads through the wall adjacent the upper end of the tank and an outlet tube 3| leads oil from the bottom oi. the tank, these tubes being intended for the introduction and removal of developing and fixing solutions and water rinses.

The iilm strip in its passage along the trackway l is bent in a direction'opposite from its winding (indicated in dotted lines in Figl) upon the roll contained in the magazine 2and hence the tendency is to atten out the nlm not entirely removed from the nlm strip, and

consequently when an exposed section oi the strip is severed, it will ordinarily cling to the upper end of the tank due to its curvature. 'But when the initial developing solution is directed upon its face, this solution will flush the tllm strip vdown into the -bottom of the tank.

With direct positive paper, eight developing and iixing operations will usually be required, namely -four chemical treatments alternating with four water rinses. Furthermore, by iioodng the sensitized surface of the paper with the initial chemical solution while the exposed paper clingsto the upper end of the tank, improved results are obtained. This appears to be due to .the fact that the application of the initial chemicalis practically simultaneous over the entire surface of the illm which is not the case when duced into the tube, and the lower end o! out.

let tube 3l may lead to a suitable collection receptacletor the recovery of the liquids. Ai'ter the ilxing solution has been applied to the nlm,

the tank may be dtached from the housing and the developed iilm strip removed.

By reason of the camera construction described above, it will be apparent that photographs may be taken in different sizes upon the same roll of film and without unnecessary waste of film, the only operation involved in changing over from one size of picture to another being a simple transposition of the stops 22 and 22a. It is not necessary that direct positive paper be used for the lm strip, but the usual transparent films for the production of negatives may be employed if desired.

Various conventional partsof the camera have been omitted .from the drawing in the interest of greater cl'earness since it is believed that such parts are unnecessary to an understandingv of my invention.

Manifestly the invention may be embodied in forms other than that described above, which is to be regarded as exemplary rather than as restrictive vof the invention, Without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim:

to expose the film located within the field of the lens, a screen adjustable to different positions for intercepting and reducing the field of the lens, a member for adjusting the position of the screen, said member being connected to the screen and extending-exteriorly of the housing, a manually-engageable member extending exi teriorly of the housing and movable to actuate the film-engaging means, and a spacer adapted to be interchangeably associated with said mem- -bers for determining the position of the screen a wall of said housing, a trackway for guiding* said film strip from adjacent the film-roll supporting means toa position within the field of the lens, a presser foot for engaging said film strip, a push-rod operatively connected to said 1. A camera for taking different size pictures upon the same nlm strip, comprising a film housing, means for supporting a strip of film within said housing, a focusing lens extending through a wall of said housing, adjustable means for feeding the film strip Variable distances across the field of the lens at each operation, a shutter for covering and uncovering said lens to expose the film located within the field of the lens, a screen adjustable to different positions for intercepting and reducing the field of the lens, and spacer means adapted to be interchangeably associatedl with the screen and nlm-feeding means for equalizing the distance of film feed and the length of the lens field uncovered by the screen.

2. A lcamera for taking .different size pictures upon the same film strip, comprising a4 film housing, means for supporting a roll of lm within said housing, a focusing lens extending vthrough a wall of said housing, a trackway for guiding said film strip from adjacent the film-roll supporting means to a position within the field of the lens, film-engaging means for feeding said film strip step-by-step along the trackway. a shutter for covering and uncovering said lens presser foot and extending exteriorly of the housing, said push-rod adapted to be manually actuated for moving said film strip along the trackway in a step-by-step manner, a shutter for covering and uncovering said lens to expose the filmlocated within the 'field of the lens, a screen adjustable to different positions for intercepting and reducing the field of the lens, a rod for adjusting the position of the screen, said rod being connected to the screen and extending exteriorly of the housing, and a spacer adapted to be interchangeably associated with said screen- 

